There is a lot of Windows Mobile gaming news to report on:
After Ben Stanley’s excellent review, Just Another Mobile Monday has also published a review of probably the best and, what is more, TCP/IP multiplayer-enabled, turn-based strategy game even released for the Pocket PC, Orions: Legend of Wizards. It's available here and is highly recommended. Note that I'll also publish a Strategy Guide to the game (I'm also an author of several Starcraft Strategy Guides so the genre, the ideas of micromanagement etc. are pretty well-known to me) later, as soon as I have some free time (not in the next two weeks, I'm afraid). (News source: PPCT).
BTW, note that a new, 1.01 version of the game was released some days ago; it, among other things, fixed the multiplayer functionality, which was entirely useless in the initial version. Now, multiplayer is working just great and, as it's IP address entering-based, really flexible and even allows for playing people in another continent (that is, it's not local-only). (News source: I worked very closely with the excellent Moregames Entertainment folks to quickly iron out the bug.)
Pocket Fallout, the highly recommended, free (!) Fallout clone (review here) has just received a dedicated website. (New source: private e-mail from the developer.)
[email protected] is working on a real (!) Pirates! clone Caribbean Adventures 1600AD. Unlike the other two piracy-related games on the Pocket PC, High Seas and Tradewinds (please read the full story here), this is promised to bear much more similarities with the classic Pirates! (News source: have run into the announcement while checking out the following title.)
The same developer, [email protected], has just released a space shooter Space Prospector. I haven't tested it as yet; based on the screenshots, it doesn't seem to be as good as SkyForce Reloaded, the best vertical scroller game available for the Pocket PC. I may be mistaken, though. (News source: PocketGamer.org)
The excellent Doom port (which, as can also be seen based on its name, supports the 3D hardware built into Intel 2700G and GoForce-based Windows Mobile devices) DoomGLES has been updated to version 0.5. There are two main things of interest in here (among other things):
- music support (at last! Previous versions only offered sound effects)
- can be played in Portrait mode, which is certainly very good news for Dell Axim x50v/x51v users sensitive to the polarization problems of the cheapo Dell screen in Landscape mode.
All in all, checking out the new version is a MUST for all 3D hardware accelerated Windows Mobile device users. (News source: forum announcement over PocketGamer.)
Interactive E Books Ltd has released Jurassic Adventure. It's an interactive e-book where you play the role of a research physicist sent back in time one hundred and fifty million years into the past. Don't, however, expect anything like a "real" adventure game. In my opinion, Interactive E Books's games are far inferior to that of, say, Legend Entertainment on the PC or, on the Pocket PC / Palm, Fade Team (Fade on the PPC / Acedior on the Palm - do they ring a bell?). However, it's pretty cheap and, if you're into the genre, you may want to give it a try. (News source: PocketGamer)
The free, highly recommended Transport Tycoon Deluxe has also been updated; the new features are as follows:
- Now works on VGA devices
- Loads the PC version of OpenTTD's save game files!
- Right-click emulation via hard buttons.
- Fast landscape graphics via custom raw frame buffer drawing routines.
- Full threaded sound effects and music.
- Palm TTD provides full 480x320 Tapwave API accelerated graphics
(News source & related discussion: PocketGamer)
Tetraedge has released the long-anticipated multimedia (which is bad news for fans of the "traditional" textual or Lucasfilm/Sierra-like genre) adventure game Syberia 2 in both English and German (French, Spanish and Italian versions will follow later). Note that I can only provide you a ClickGamer link (and this one for the German version) because the official homepage of the developer still doesn't have any information on the new game. Note that, while originally there wasn't, now, a trial version is also available. (News source & related discussion: PocketGamer)
PocketGear offers a 20% rebate for all their products in March with the coupon code MARCH20 (News source: PocketGamer)
UPDATE (later the same day): as is announced at AximSite, DoomGLES V0.54 has just been released. Make sure you upgrade!
Whatever happened to Live Anywhere? I would love to unlock achievements while i play zuma on my WM device and be able to chat with my xbox live friends when i'm bored in class... or customize my car on Forza Motorsport as their developers showed in the "capabilities" of live anywhere.
Related
I’ve constantly been reporting on (see the latest report HERE) the Shadow of Legend MMORPG, a very promising Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) game for Windows Mobile.
Unfortunately, there are almost no “real” MMORPG games for Windows Mobile (see the linked article for more info on them); this is why I’m really looking for any new title.
Fortunately, SmartCell, the developer of Shadow of Legend, has just announced a closed beta for the game. See THIS for more info & the application form. Note that the beta is ONLY compatible with WM5+ devices – bad news for WM2003(SE) users.
Also, the homepage of the developer has a LOT of brand new and VERY cool-looking, high-resolution (!) screenshots HERE and the forums are also working (at last!). Make sure you check them out!
(Hope being hi-res also means support for hi-res contents on (W)VGA screens.)
Games news (11/17/2007): New Orions & Azgard update, free, decent Bejeweled-clone etc
1. Azgard Defence and the two Orions (Legend of Wizards and The Second Age) have been updated!
These three (unfortunately, Pocket PC-only – no Smartphone / Symbian / etc. versions are available) astonishingly good games (Orions: Legend of Wizards and Azgard Defence won this year in the Turn-based Strategy and in the (plain) Strategy categories, respectively - and they certainly deserved it!) are a must-get for all Pocket PC users. (See my review of the latter HERE and that of Doug Goldring of the former HERE.) Now, they have received updates.
The changes to Orions are as follows (with my remarks in italics):
Balance Changes:
* Tython is now slightly stronger. (More HP and attack damage)
* Tython's casting no longer costs water elements. I’m not entirely sure this, along with the previous balance change, was a nice idea – after all, Tython has already been THE best way for mass re-healing. Now, a player having this card will be next to unbeatable (if he’s playing using the right strategy and is, otherwise, decent)
* Lightning Bolt damage increased to 6.
* Remade Avatar. The most important change as I really didn’t see the point in this card at all. Nice the developers have listened to me.
* Guardian: now loses less health each round. Great, now, it’s much more useful because it won’t die that fast
* Fixed cast cost for Spider. This was more of a bug and should belong to the “Common bugs” section IMHO
* Imp: Health increased. Nice idea because it was REALLY weak – now, combined with Diablo (which, unfortunately, has been made pricey), it’s much better than before
* Infernal: Level lowered to 10.
* Diablo casting now cost 1 Fire and weakened a little. Oh dear, it used to be SO cool to quickly make other Fire creatures unbeatable...
Common Bugs:
* AI no longer casts Scylla's abilities too much. Oh dear, now, we can’t take advantage of this bug to quickly bump up our Water elements…
* Leviathan, Nixie, Demon - elemental issues solved. (No more exchange nothing for fire/water). See previous remark
* Fixed Black Market issues.
* Fixed Necromancer multiplayer issue.
Incidentally, the homepage of the developer has a poll called “What game would you like next?”. Currently, “Orions: Duelist Edition (No campaign, all new cards)” has 95% of the (currently, 365) votes. This is certainly good news: we DO want more and even more cards (and, preferably, lounge-based multiplayer support!) Personally, I haven't played the campaign part of the game much - I like the dual gaming much more. Therefore, I'm absolutely satisfied with the (current) poll results.
2. A VERY decent, really multiplatform, freeware Bejeweled clone, Snowed In 6: Deep Freeze, has been released!
Last year, I’ve reviewed the previous game, Snowed In 5 - Flaked Out, in the sequel and kinda liked it – except for the lack of music.
The new sequel is available HERE for download for ALL (!!!) non-Java mobile platforms – even for Symbian S80, S90 and GP2X (not only the "traditional" ones like Pocket PC, MS Smartphone, Symbian S60(v3) / UIQ)! Quite a feat, isn’t it?
The Pocket PC version, as with the previous sequel, supports all screen resolutions (even square screens) and the VGA version natively supports hi-res, which is also very good news. Unfortunately, it (still) has no in-game music, in which it’s certainly inferior to the two Bejeweleds, the absolute star in this category (mostly because of its music). But, after all, you can run a MOD player in the background, playing back the music of Astrware’s classic as is thoroughly explained in my related tutorial. Then, you'll get a 100% - in high resolution if you have a VGA device (again, Bejeweled doesn't support high resolution on VGA devices).
3. OmniG Software has released Super-G Stunt for both the Pocket PC and the MS Smartphone platform
Unfortunately, OmniG Software's new title doesn’t support the 3D accelerators (the 2700G in the Dell Axim x50v / x51v Pocket PC's (or the GoForce 5500 in the O2 XDA Flame / Toshi G900.) Their only title to support the 2700G (but not the 5500) was Chopper Fight reviewed HERE.
As these games heavily depend on 3D, this is pretty much a showstopper for me, mostly because the new game is suffering from the same problem as ALL the other OmniG Software titles; most importantly, the REALLY repetitive music and pretty dull gameplay. Not recommended - if you want to play something like this, go for for example Warelex' Sky Racer instead (reviewed HERE) instead (not that that title were THAT good...).
Games news (11/17/2007): New Orions & Azgard update, free, decent Bejeweled-clone etc
1. Azgard Defence and the two Orions (Legend of Wizards and The Second Age) have been updated!
These three (unfortunately, Pocket PC-only – no Smartphone / Symbian / etc. versions are available) astonishingly good games (Orions: Legend of Wizards and Azgard Defence won this year in the Turn-based Strategy and in the (plain) Strategy categories, respectively - and they certainly deserved it!) are a must-get for all Pocket PC users. (See my review of the latter HERE and that of Doug Goldring of the former HERE.) Now, they have received updates.
The changes to Orions are as follows (with my remarks in italics):
Balance Changes:
* Tython is now slightly stronger. (More HP and attack damage)
* Tython's casting no longer costs water elements. I’m not entirely sure this, along with the previous balance change, was a nice idea – after all, Tython has already been THE best way for mass re-healing. Now, a player having this card will be next to unbeatable (if he’s playing using the right strategy and is, otherwise, decent)
* Lightning Bolt damage increased to 6.
* Remade Avatar. The most important change as I really didn’t see the point in this card at all. Nice the developers have listened to me.
* Guardian: now loses less health each round. Great, now, it’s much more useful because it won’t die that fast
* Fixed cast cost for Spider. This was more of a bug and should belong to the “Common bugs” section IMHO
* Imp: Health increased. Nice idea because it was REALLY weak – now, combined with Diablo (which, unfortunately, has been made pricey), it’s much better than before
* Infernal: Level lowered to 10.
* Diablo casting now cost 1 Fire and weakened a little. Oh dear, it used to be SO cool to quickly make other Fire creatures unbeatable...
Common Bugs:
* AI no longer casts Scylla's abilities too much. Oh dear, now, we can’t take advantage of this bug to quickly bump up our Water elements…
* Leviathan, Nixie, Demon - elemental issues solved. (No more exchange nothing for fire/water). See previous remark
* Fixed Black Market issues.
* Fixed Necromancer multiplayer issue.
Incidentally, the homepage of the developer has a poll called “What game would you like next?”. Currently, “Orions: Duelist Edition (No campaign, all new cards)” has 95% of the (currently, 365) votes. This is certainly good news: we DO want more and even more cards (and, preferably, lounge-based multiplayer support!) Personally, I haven't played the campaign part of the game much - I like the dual gaming much more. Therefore, I'm absolutely satisfied with the (current) poll results.
2. A VERY decent, really multiplatform, freeware Bejeweled clone, Snowed In 6: Deep Freeze, has been released!
Last year, I’ve reviewed the previous game, Snowed In 5 - Flaked Out, in the sequel and kinda liked it – except for the lack of music.
The new sequel is available HERE for download for ALL (!!!) non-Java mobile platforms – even for Symbian S80, S90 and GP2X (not only the "traditional" ones like Pocket PC, MS Smartphone, Symbian S60(v3) / UIQ)! Quite a feat, isn’t it?
The Pocket PC version, as with the previous sequel, supports all screen resolutions (even square screens) and the VGA version natively supports hi-res, which is also very good news. Unfortunately, it (still) has no in-game music, in which it’s certainly inferior to the two Bejeweleds, the absolute star in this category (mostly because of its music). But, after all, you can run a MOD player in the background, playing back the music of Astrware’s classic as is thoroughly explained in my related tutorial. Then, you'll get a 100% - in high resolution if you have a VGA device (again, Bejeweled doesn't support high resolution on VGA devices).
3. OmniG Software has released Super-G Stunt for both the Pocket PC and the MS Smartphone platform
Unfortunately, OmniG Software's new title doesn’t support the 3D accelerators (the 2700G in the Dell Axim x50v / x51v Pocket PC's (or the GoForce 5500 in the O2 XDA Flame / Toshi G900.) Their only title to support the 2700G (but not the 5500) was Chopper Fight reviewed HERE.
As these games heavily depend on 3D, this is pretty much a showstopper for me, mostly because the new game is suffering from the same problem as ALL the other OmniG Software titles; most importantly, the REALLY repetitive music and pretty dull gameplay. Not recommended - if you want to play something like this, go for for example Warelex' Sky Racer instead (reviewed HERE) instead (not that that title were THAT good...).
Emulation&gaming news:SmartGear with greatly enhanced NES compatibility;Civ clone etc
I think it was worth asking the developer of SmartGear to go commercial; his excellent emulator has been further enhanced after the major upgrades (the touch screen tap zones) in the previous version reviewed HERE. Now, almost all the NES mappers (more on this in the NES Emulation Bible) have been implemented, resulting in tons of previously incompatible games becoming playable. Thumbs up, Larry!
Revival will very soon be released – the first Civilization-like game for all mobile platforms, including both the touchscreen-enabled and -less two Windows Mobile platform. It seems to be REALLY great. Before it’s released, read Ben Stanley’s excellent review, “Revival: Finally a Civilization-Like Game for Windows Mobile!!!” and Masa’s in-depth one HERE (in French; the Babelfish and the Google Translator “translations” are HERE and HERE, respectively). Attila Katona’s (Symbian S60-related, but the game is basically the same on Symbian S60 as on touchscreen-less MS Smartphones) preview is HERE; his full-length review hasn’t been published yet. The related PG thread is HERE.
Lygue Games, who don’t seem to have a homepage of their own, have released a new platformer called “Bananas”. It’s available HERE and is definitely worth a try. (PPC only!)
There’s another platformer, Killer RoboRabbits from Mars; see THIS for more info.
Windows Mobile leading gaming news site PocketGamer.org has reported on some of the games of the free and pretty much high-quality games of XFlib website. See their report HERE, HERE and HERE of TangledBugs, Pipes (a Pipe Dreams clone – see the Windows Mobile Gaming Bible Part I for more info on this genre and the alternatives if interested) and ChristmasXed, in this order.
Still speaking of free games, the excellent Just Another Mobile Monday has published their Arcade Best Five (Plus Two) of 2007, listing the, in the staff’s opinion, best freeware games they’ve reviewed in 2007. Definitely worth a read. Also, don’t forget to check out their monthly freeware reports; their list is HERE.
Two new Sudokus have been released: Impossible Sudoku and Skinz Sudoku.
1. (WinMo, desktop Windows): The creators of Shadow of Legend, a really promising multiplayer (!!) MMORPG I’ve several times reported on, have announced (see http://www.shadowoflegend.com/web/News.aspx?ID=452 ) the forthcoming, vastly enhanced 2.5D version of their game.
Unfortunately, there will be NO Windows Mobile-specific version of the new game, unlike with the previous, 2G (isometric) version. It will only be released later, if at all: the developers state they will only look into releasing the WinMo version when WinMo hardware manufacturers do come up with much more gaming-friendly (mostly importantly, 3D hardware accelerated) devices – that is, not in the foreseeable future.
2. (WinMo, BlackBerry, (Symbian?)): Concrete Software ( http://www.concretesoftware.com/ ) have announced the forthcoming native (non-emulated!) ports of the titles of the great Microprose classics, Civilization (IV?), Pirates! and Railroad Tycoon.
The ports will, at first, be released for BlackBerry. (Which may also mean they’ll also be made available for Symbian and other platforms with strong Java MIDlet support – after all, BlackBerry apps are also Java-based.) The BlackBerry games list (http://www.concretesoftware.com/blackberry/index.shtml ) on the homepage of the developer already shows these four titles; Civilization (here, referred to as Civ IV: War of Two Cities – that is, not the first episode) is slated for Sep. 2., while no release date is provided for the other two titles. The listing of other platforms doesn’t list the new titles as yet.
While, at least on Windows Mobile, you definitely can play these titles under emulators (for example, Civilization does run under n0p’s DOSBox – see The definitive guide to running (MS-)DOS (80x86) programs under Windows Mobile at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blogs/3/the_definitive_guide_to_running_ms_dos_8_12 for more info), doing the same with native (or, at least, Java MIDlet-based) games is much better: much less CPU usage (resulting in much better battery life), advanced (midi / Adlib / Sound blaster) audio, customizable keys etc.
3. Make sure you check out Eric Pankoke’s My World Of Handhelds http://www.myworldofhandhelds.com . Among other things, it has decent a review of Xassar's Quest ( http://myworldofhandhelds.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=33 ) and Igor ( http://myworldofhandhelds.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=1 ) – two titles I couldn’t fully test upon writing a quick news items on them. Of particular interest is Xassar's Quest, an RPG, which definitely is worth paying attention to.
4. (Windows Mobile devices with accelerometer): There is a real abundance of games utilizing the accelerometer of the HTC Diamond and the HTC Touch Pro. See the list of these games at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=411419 . The thread started post is worth checking out now and then for new projects.
Still speaking of 3D hardware acceleration, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=415873 has a decent C#/.NET Compact Framework wrapper for OpenGLES. If you’re a .NET CF games programmer looking into 3D acceleration, check it out.
5. (Symbian): Several new, high-quality titles have been released for Nokia’s Next-Gen N-Gage platform. Some of the better titles include the adventure Dirk Dagger (official website: http://www.dirkdagger.com/ ; AAN post & discussion: http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7858_Dirk_Dagger_now_available_on_N.php ) and, most importantly, Reset Generation (see related AAN story at http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7789_Reset_Generation_The_first_Meg.php and http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7774_Reset_Generation_out_now_on_N-.php ), a truly multiplayer, really nice game well worth trying. Note that it has a free Web version you can test in your desktop browser; it’s available at http://www.allaboutngage.com/games/item/Project_White_Rock.php . Also note that you can even put the game on your own website as is explained at http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7781_How_to_put_the_full_version_of.php
Still speaking of the N-Gage platform, the also-new Dogz has received pretty bad press; see http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7914_AAN_reviews_Dogz_for_N-Gage.php
6. (Symbian, Palm, WinMo): Infinite Dreams, the developer of some killer titles like K-Rally and SkyForce (Reloaded), have a blog on their own at http://idreamsblog.blogspot.com/ (also see http://www.allaboutngage.com/news/item/7742_Infinite_Dreams_Blog.php ). There aren’t many entries there; still, fans of the developer may still want to check the page out.
7. (WinMo): A free (!) Metal Slug-remake, Psycho Team’s Symbian Killer (see http://psygame.org/publ/2-1-0-4 ; direct download: http://psygame.org/download/SymbianKiller.CAB ) is definitely worth checking out if you like Metal Slug, one of the bets 2D platform games ever written. (See my Guide to Emulating NeoGeo and CPS: A must if you’re into quality and FREE arcade games! at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blogs/3/the_guide_to_emulating_neogeo_and_cps_a for more info on emulating the original titles.)
8. (WinMo): another platformer: Firetop Adventure. Allen Gall's review is at http://pocketpcmag.com/cms/blog/5248/the-week-in-games-firetop-adventure